An organocatalytic enantioselective intramolecular aza-Michael reaction of carbamates bearing conjugated ketones as Michael acceptors is described. By using 9-amino-9-deoxy-epi-hydroquinine as the catalyst and pentafluoropropionic acid as a co-catalyst, a series of piperidines, pyrrolidines, and the corresponding benzo-fused derivatives (indolines, isoindolines, tetrahydroquinolines, and tetrahydroisoquinolines) can be obtained in excellent yields and enantioselectivities. In addition, the use of microwave irradiation at 60 °C improves the efficiency of the process giving rise to the final products with comparable yields and enantiomeric excesses. Some mechanistic insights are also considered.

The use of chiral sulfinyl amines both as nucleophilic nitrogen sources and chiral inducers has been described for the first time in a desymmetrization-type process involving an intramolecular aza-Michael reaction. The resulting product was employed as an advanced intermediate in the total synthesis of the natural product hippodamine and epi-hippodamine, taking advantage of the special symmetry of these molecules. In addition, this is the first asymmetric total synthesis of epi-hippodamine.

A new methodology for the synthesis of enantiomerically enriched bicyclic δ‐sultams is described, involving an initial organocatalytic intramolecular aza‐Michael reaction of vinyl sulfonamides bearing a conjugated ketone at a remote position. The resulting Michael adducts were then subjected to an intramolecular conjugate addition over the vinyl sulfone moiety, thus rendering the final bicyclic sultams containing two stereocenters. The key point of this strategy relies on the use of vinyl sulfonamides as both, nitrogen nucleophiles and Michael acceptors. The use of phosphazene‐derived bases avoided the racemization of the intermediate derivatives, rendering 6‐membered ring bicyclic δ‐sultams in enantiomerically enriched manner with a small erosion of enantiopurity. Anyway, after recrystallization, final sultams were obtained in almost enantiomerically pure form. Nevertheless, the enantioselective synthesis of either 5‐membered ring products or benzofused derivatives was found to be out of the scope of our strategy.magnified image

Conjugated N-acyl pyrazoles have been successfully employed in the organocatalytic enantioselective intramolecular aza-Michael reaction as ester surrogates. Bifunctional squaramides under microwave irradiation provided the best results in this transformation. Furthermore, this protocol has been combined with a peptide-coupling reaction in a tandem sequence. The final products were easily converted into the corresponding ethyl esters.

Microwave-Assisted Tandem Organocatalytic Peptide-Coupling Intramolecular aza-Michael Reaction: ,-Unsaturated N-Acyl Pyrazoles as Michael Acceptors. -Conjugated N-acyl pyrazoles are successfully employed in the organocatalytic enantioselective intramolecular aza-Michael reaction as ester surrogates. Bifunctional squaramides under microwave irradiation provide the best results in this transformation. -(SANCHEZ-ROSELLO, M.; MULET, C.; GUEROLA, M.; DEL POZO, C.; FUSTERO*, S.; Chem. -Eur. J. 20 (2014) 48, 15697-15701, http://dx.